I personally have emacs-nox on a transparent terminal. To enable transparency I've put the following in my .emacs.d/init.el

(custom-set-variables
;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
)
(custom-set-faces
;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
'(default ((t (:inherit nil :stipple nil :foreground "#66ff66" :inverse-video nil :box nil :strike-through nil :overline nil :underline nil :slant normal :weight normal :height 1 :width normal :foundry "default" :family "default"))))
'(mode-line ((t (:foreground "#5f5faf"))))
'(mode-line-inactive ((t (:foreground "#5f5f5f")))))